In another union legal victory in the 4-1/2-year-old newspaper contract dispute, an administrative law judge ruled that the Detroit News and Detroit Free Press and their joint operating agency, Detroit Newspapers, violated labor law by firing 50 union workers for legal picketing and protest activities related to the strike and lockout.

ALJ Richard A. Scully ordered DN and the newspapers to reinstate the workers to their former jobs or "substantially equivalent" positions, restore their seniority, and make them whole for any loss of earnings and other benefits resulting from their firing.

Detroit 13N Pres. Jack Howe, who was one of the GCIU pressmen included in the order, said Gannett's News, Knight Ridder's Free Press and DN announced they would appeal the ALJ's order. He said the Metropolitan Council of Newspaper Unions also is considering an appeal for approximately 35 union workers that Scully did not order to be reinstated.

The newspaper council said the majority of the firings overturned by Scully were connected to an Aug. 30, 1996, peaceful sit-down protest in front of Detroit News and an Aug. 29, 1996, legally protected peaceful picket at a DN distribution center in Roseville, Mich.

Photos by Rebecca Cook

Solidarity has been the watchword during the 4-1/2 year course of the contract dispute with Detroit newspapers. The top photo shows a demonstration in progress at the site of a fund-raising spaghetti dinner. The bottom photo shows some of the picketers who walked the line over the course of the strike and lockout.

Al Derey, who chairs the union newspaper council, said the ruling "clearly states that these two renegade corporations, Gannett and Knight Ridder, have illegally fired 50 members of its workforce for legally protected union activity. We call on the newspapers to stop breaking the law and to reinstate" these workers.

Among others ordered to be reinstated were photographer Rebecca Cook.

Howe said that, after a year of pressing DN, the company restored five more Local 13N pressmen to full-time status. That leaves some 57 Local 13N members in the pressroom still working part-time without seniority recognition, he said.

Howe noted that, despite the majority of legal rulings favoring the unions, Gannett and Knight Ridder have managed to delay justice and contracts for the union workers for more than four years. According to the union council, some 600 union workers continue to be locked out despite NLRB orders in August 1998 for reinstatement.

In a recent address to the Industrial Relations Research Association of the Detroit area, Theodore Niforos, a Detroit regional National Labor Relations Board attorney, said the Detroit newspaper contract dispute is a good example of the failure of the U.S. labor law to assist in the prompt resolution of disputes so that interstate commerce is not obstructed, which was the original intent of the National Labor Relations Act. Instead, he said, the NLRB has only managed to be a "referee" by keeping the commerce disruption from being worse than it has been "and calling fouls as the bargaining and litigation plays developed."

Meanwhile, Howe said, the subscriber and advertiser boycotts run by the six local unions involved in the dispute are still going strong. He said the latest survey from the Audit Bureau of Circulations showed that circulation of the Free Press is down by 2.6 percent and the News' circulation is down by 2.5 percent. The newspaper council said the boycott has claimed more than one-third of pre-strike daily and Sunday circulation of the two dailies.

Howe said GCIU local union and other unions' "phenomenal" support of Local 13N and Detroit-Toledo-Lansing 289M, which also represents GCIU members involved in the dispute, continues to make a big difference. "GCIU locals continue to support Detroit in a magnanimous fashion," he said. "Once again, New York 2N and Philadelphia 16N came through in a big way over the Christmas holidays," he said, enabling Local 13N members to receive $100 each in "Meijer's Dollars" – a major Michigan chain store that sells groceries, clothing, and other necessities.

The Detroit Sunday Journal put out its final edition on Nov. 21, 1999 – the fourth anniversary of its founding as the voice of the striking then locked out newspaper workers. The board of directors of the award-winning newspaper said the loss of staff due to call-backs on the newspapers and at DN contributed to its decision to close the paper.

In the DSJ's farewell editorial, the staff said: "From the first issue, the Detroit Sunday Journal was all about love and commitment – the love we have for each other as a union family, and our commitment to put that love to work for a cause we deeply believe in and have been willing to sacrifice for . . . .Our love will not die."

GCIU locals 13N and 289M and their members in Detroit continue to need the support of every local union and member to help in winning the contract struggle against the giant newspaper chains Gannett and Knight Ridder.

Contributions are needed urgently to help locked-out members support their families. The locals also need donations to help pay legal defense bills, which continue to mount as Gannett, Knight Ridder and their joint operating agency, Detroit Newspapers, prolong the dispute.

Local unions and individuals may send donations to the GCIU Local 13N/289M Special Assistance Fund, 3300 Book Building, Detroit, Mich. 48226. Individuals only – not local unions – may contribute to The Newspaper Unions Assistance Fund at the same address.